The US dollar has sank like a stone recently. This is going to kill BC's marijuana industry. It is no secret that BC exports a lot of marijuana to the US. Exporting high-quality marijuana is what BC does. But thanks to the crashing US dollar, there is just no money to be made in exporting marijuana to the States anymore. So what is going to happen to all of that excess marijuana that is not going to go south?
A lot of people are going to get stuck with marijuana that they can't sell. This is good news for Canadians that love pot. The price will crash domestically, meaning that by Christmas time, Saskatoon will be swamped with cheap and high-quality weed. But this also means an increase in gang violence. There will be debts that can not be repaid and those issues will not be resolved by marijuana growers going bankrupt. It will be resolved with violence. And tragically, that is what we are already seeing.
But there is another evil side effect of the increase in gang violence. The victims of gang violence will be used by the Conservative government to push tough-on-crime initiatives that will not decrease crime.
- Crack down on money laundering by organized crime.
- Earmark $64 million for a "National Anti-Drug Strategy."
- Announce the hiring of 1,000 new RCMP officers as well money to help municipalities hire 2,500 more police.
- Introduce legislation to limit house arrest so that those committing violent crime would be forced to serve jail time; to require mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, and tougher sentencing for violent repeat offenders; to establish a reverse-onus principle in bail hearings for firearm-related offences.
In light of the recent tasering incident in the Vancouver International Airport, more police just might lead to an increase in crime. At any rate, the National Anti-Drug Strategy is the subject of my ire. Cracking down on grow-ops won't affect the crime rate, it will just make selling and growing pot way more profitable for the people that don't get caught.
At least they are paying attention to treatment. But I have to wonder what the prevention strategy will entail. What kind of reefer madness are they going to have to come up with in order to convince people that marijuana is the devil's own weed? Will they have contests to come up with the best "Just Say No" poster? Or will Canada come up with their very own version of Pete's couch? I just can't wait to find out, so I can make fun of it. In the meantime, I will make fun of the ONDCP for coming up with this bit of worthless reefer madness propaganda.
"Smoking marijuana is the safest thing in the world."
PS: While googling I came across this impressive debunking of reefer madness propaganda at Daily Kos. Enjoy.
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